New Years Resolutions

I don't make them every year but here goes

1. no more than a coffee break of web browsing at work. Cutting back on old sites will be easy enough, just have to stay away from newfound milblogs.

2. need to cut back on snacks, again. Holidays are over and I do have some pudge.

3. More exercise too. Doing chores is not keeping the pudge at bay and I may need walking breaks to cement #1 anyway.

well thats enough, no sense making a crazy long list.

wormed all the horses today

Not the most standard form of record keeping but at least the date is preserved. All the horses got a dose of ivermectin. I was lazy and didn't even tape Sadie or the minis. I just have Sadie about 900lbs worth and Black Diamond the remainder of her tube, and Frosty got 2.7 cc's of liquid ivermectin. Everybody else got a full tube. Most of them don't weigh 1250 lbs and AJ possibly weighs a bit more, but we've never given him extra and I always figure the extra is just insurance for the lighter horses. CJ and AJ both had hay in their mouths so I had to feint with the wormer and kind of fish out hay before I dosed them.

Otherwise I was pretty lazy, didnt do much else than feed, did dump and scrub the mini's water trough. The birds use that one pretty heavily, so it needs dumping fairly often. I've been trying to keep the other tanks 5-6 inches from the rim and set out water in shallow feed pans when it wont freeze to discourage the birds from perching on and fouling them as much. Seems to be helping a bit.

Beware of idiots when shopping

What a frustrating hour+ at target. First I couldn't get the sudafed that was a primary reason to stop there instead of just grabbing lunch and waiting to buy work meals till monday. I've thought for years that the gov'mint regs were that you can buy one 20 pack of 12 hr sudafed every week. Often I don't get back on the dot of the week, but I'm sure I have sometimes so perhaps they've tightened this. I try to stock up on sudafed in the winter, so I can coast during the summer when I have funner things to do than run to the store. I have rhinitis and take it pretty much year round which my dr said is ok to do.

Then since I was there, I got a few gift bags and some wrapping paper since it 50% off. Crowed but not a problem other than killing more time before I start my work day. Checkout -- all cashiers seemed full so I just went to the closest one. Ohhhh myyyy gotttt! 2 people ahead of me, first one checks out and is on their way, then the dumb blonde diva starts. They had put 1/2 price tags on some of the discounted seasonal items. Diva was making the cashier put items in separate bags so she could sort it easier later. Sheesh, its not that hard to unpack a bag and sort when you get home! Then thought she was getting another 50% off that red tag price. Ok an easy mistake but A) IF you are only going to buy something if its super discounted you should probably pass on it anyway. and B) The store has scanners that customers can use to see what price something is going to be scattered throughout the store so shoppers can fairly easily check things in each section if the decision to buy something is hinging on the amount of the markdown. So it was HIGHLY annoying to have unpacked my cart and not want to start over with a completely new line, but the poor cashier is having to search through the list of items and remove stuff because DIVA was SHOCKED that her brimful cart of crap had come to over $230.

Oh well eventually Diva realized she was being rude and let the cashier ring things up, with plans to go to customer service to take out a few more higher price items. Then THAT still took forever because the dumb shit computerized teller drawer had to recreate every scroll taken as items were removed by the cashier before it printed the amended receipt. But eventually the teller got to me and rang me up quickly enough, using my cloth totes without complaint and one big plastic store bag for the wrapping paper and gift bags and even asking first if that was ok with me. I hope I was gracious with her, hardly any of the delay was her fault --she did scroll a bit extra to find items being removed but even that was more the dumbass machine doing the auto scroll and then running on then the cashiers fault.

Thanks Shade, that was a nice ride

Lovely weather today. I've got a bit of a headache, but knocked it down for a few hours with decongestant and a generic aleve so I was able to enjoy a nice little ride on Shade. She enjoyed the generous treats as I brushed and tacked her, and the bites of winter grass as we sauntered down the road to start out. Mostly walked, she picked up a trot a couple of times, I would have slowed her from a canter as the snow was packed and slick in spots and so I did not request any trotting that was not volunteered. She did pick up a power walk on the way home, felt good. She also did a few arab 'teleports' Didn't slip or slide doing those; they were smooth to ride since she wasn't doing her stiff leg braking first.

testing smilies link

seriously I have nothing to journal right now

Good weekend, and short work week

So I better be smiling. Well I mostly am. I put up some christmas stuff this weekend, saturday I put the most illogical pattern of lights possible in the big outdoor tree. For my future reference. 1. Test all lights before stringing --preferably in warm house. 2. Come on you KNOW you need the male plug end at the staring point. 3. trying to wrap things up when you are cold and tired and trying to get by without dragging out more lights when you have plenty is not the best strategy.

Sunday dad and I put a bunch of boxes up in the attic. Hunting stuff he packed up with prodding from mom, who usually would do some of that packing but she is so sickly. I really am not even hearing her watching insipid re-runs or endless sports downstairs much lately; plus the christmas stuff I'm not going to put up.

I wanted to put up the reindeer, just in the ditch since it was cold and putting them on a shed roof is a longer job that needs 2 people and dad was not volunteering to help --but he did help me get the wooden base for them out.

--Again on #1. Rudolphs nose is out, and some of his leg lights, one reindeer's head is not lighted. You can see the head from the other lights so its just a stealth effect, not going to give neighbor kids nightmares. so, it is most likely not going to get tested to try to find the bad bulbs until I take it down and bring it inside the nice warm house. The tester is probably in one of the boxes that we put back up in the attic. Sigh, this is the problem with not being in practice for decorating --and I'm hoping dad is more gung-ho to resume the decorating next year when he is retired, rather than me getting more practice.

Saturday the sun was shining and the thermometer under the porch eaves read pretty high so I grabbed Shade for a quick ride. It was not so warm out in the open, I turned around after less than 1/2 a mile. I assembled one of my shelving units. I like it, but I'd best not start the other one after 10:30 pm, hopefully that will help me pay enough attention to get all the finished ends lined up together. I am not planning to take the first one apart. For the porch I may not even run shoe polish over the raw ends to make them blend in better. I wanted something absorbent on the top shelf for wet shoes. Had a cotton quilted dressage pad that I cut rectangles off to make Grey Moun a bigger spinal channel for the LJ since he has high withers. The pad was white, I bought 'expresso' shelving. So I made some strong coffee with some old stale coffee to 'dye' the pad with. Its not expresso colored, hopefully I don't decide the coffee looks worse with the almost black shelving than the grubby white of the well used pad. --NO pictures yet, maybe I'll take some on the 24th.

It is supposed to be a few degrees above freezing on christmas and no wind so hopefully I'll get in a Christmas ride, maybe 2 short ones.

Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me

burp, I had a mint flavored milkshake from the Arby's across from Greasemonkey this morning while waiting for my car to get serviced. GreaseMonkey puts a silk flower on my dash when I use them, well for the $$ synthetic oil service they can sure afford it. Then I stopped at the co-op to get some of the low-starch feed my girls get. Found out why mom came home with gas stabilizer a couple weeks ago, they don't have any diesel stabilizer! I thought sure they would be a better source than the auto-supply places with farmers buying bulk fuel. Then I stopped at target and bought pizza for lunch, and also some ghirardelli filled chocolate squares which I've already had 2 of. I also bought some low shelving. Assembly required sigh, I stopped at the SA store before anyplace else and it is just an empty building now. Weird, a thrift store should be doing well these last several months, well I hadn't stopped at that one in a couple of years so have no idea what the scoop is.

So I bought myself two pints of some stuff thats supposed to be very concentrated online from a marine place once I got to the office. Now I have some steel drums with lids on, a bottle of some diesel stabilizer stuff and some good stuff ordered -- I can max my store card per gallon rebates by getting as much fuel as the debit card allows (I think $100 before the rebates are taken out so not so around 35-37 gals at the price they charge) I feel like such a schemer. But I REALLY want to get some diesel now while its 1/2 the price it was last summer. Talk is that if the recession lasts oil/fuel will stay low but that totally doesn't jibe with the rather hysterical media articles from last summer/fall about how fuel is a fixed need and people HAVE to buy it (like they could not possibly arrange to commute to work or for some of the running kids around .....) therefore the gov'ment should have forced some kind of price lowering or handed out fuel cards to 'the non rich' or something. *I* am thinking that fuel prices are probably a good bet to stay pretty much this low till end of jan and then it'll be a 'lets see what happens' As long as I have the additives to make sure it wont turn to sludge and safe storage it can't hurt to stockpile a moderate amount.

Sven fits his name so well...

Peekaboo gets restless, but she doesn't go out when its cold at all. Sven stays in the house when its wet snow falling or brrr cold but he likes to prowl around. He seems to be a hardy viking cat and not get chilled or anything. He still likes to ride on the hay bales sometimes when I move them, but he doesn't insist on it to stay out of the snow or anything. I love it when he comes out and helps me do chores. He really is helping by putting a smile on my face. We had some mild late fall nights and he would stay out overnight and then come in to eat and crash as I was heading out; not nearly as much fun for me.

Why its good to have spare tank heaters

We've been having a cold snap, one worthy of mid-january rather than just december acually. I had put a sinker tank heater in Shade and Sadies tank, thinking that was safer from yearling curiousity than a floater. Except it wasn't up to snuff for temps more than a little below freezing. Monday night I got home to an iced over tank again and no plugs for christmas decorations because dad thought the timer was just shutting off current X hours after sunset. No dad, acutally I am not an idiot and I read the damn thing and made sure it had a continuous setting before I set it up that way.

So after grumping a bit I broke ice again, and put the floating heater in there. Now my girls have open, warmed water to drink 24 hours a day, but there is still a rim of ice around the tank edges. That will stay until its warm enough it melts and falls into the water or wam enough I think the hose will run and I top the tank off. I give the hose a quick drain after each use now that winter is here, but its got flat spots so I don't trust it to work until its above freezing anyway. I've been adding a little water with buckets to the tank so my girls don't have to stretch against that ice to reach the water. Hopefully it is warm enough tomorrow that the tank can be topped off.

Ho Ho Humbug.

Wow, I'm a bitter old coot. I skipped the 'secret santa' this year on my BB. My giftee from 2 years ago I don't think has done it the last 2 years. She was expecting and moving so I understand her being a bit forgetful but after I prodded out of her that a package had arrived she didn't remember who it was from. I was too proud and didn't name myself. I had spent hours making up a calendar with pics of her horse on it. --it turned out clunky unfortunately , also had bought her and her dogs little fun items, and then after sending package off early found many folks were totally ignoring the $ limit so I sent her a book that another BB member had written (she ended up getting 2 copies due to a mix up at the post office)

Then last year I wasn't going to join in but someone had thought they'd signed up and hadn't so 2 of us did a late signup and the 3 of us were matched up. I was just sure that this person was so polite that they would write a thank you on the BB even if the gift was flat, but of course I still stressed, and spent hours searching for a necklace I thought she'd like, opting for a pendant that was a turquoise and silver cross --and knowing she is quite catholic I thought that would be great even thought it came w/o a chain. So did I get a thank -you? Ummmmm No, what I got was a mention of eating an entire large size candy bar (I'd sent 2-3 yummy dark chocolate fair trade bars from my annual stash I buy for myself) --to me it was phrased like it was not nice for 'Santa' to have sent bars that were more than single serving in each wrapper, no mention even that the chocolate bar was from santa, but I recognized the decription, so then I stewed and worried that she didn't like any of the gift items or was insulted at getting a pendant with a temporary chain I'd had to scrounge up, and/or disliked the other little filler stuff I sent since she never even posted that she got a package. Except I did ping her as guest/santaElf and then outed myself.

So this year in spite of "I'm not playing" I've gotten bored and read the santa sub-board a few times. THIS YEAR Ms polite, WAS prompt and gracious in gushing over her package. WTF? It really is too bad I had such a mindset of wanting to be a good santa. I got great loot the 2 years I played, and since I gushed over it, I probably would have gotten good loot again but its too crushing to me wussy little ego when my santa efforts elicit a response worthy of a drugstore fruitcake.

Was it just two days ago I wrote this on a BB?

Pausing between rides
« Thread Started on Dec 13, 2008, 2:25pm »
Had a little jaunt on Shade, and I'm going to take another spin on either Grey or Razz in a bit. **I picked Razz

Its supposed to get COLD and stormy tomorrow so I have to take advantage while I can.

Then I'll probably haul some christmas stuff down from the attic. I'm not going to put up all the crap mom does when she's not sick, its about too much. But at absolute minimum the gatepost light pumpkins have got to be switched out for the snowmen. We may be rednecks but were not pagans

Then I'll have to log in to work and see what I should be doing, and sometime I have to worm the equines, but none of them looks wormy so I'm not making that too urgent, Sadie got dosed 6 weeks ago, the rest should have some immunity by now.

"Moonlight rides are fun even when there is no moon" Ute Jung

*******************
Well the forecast was close although it had sunday's low about 10 farenheit degrees too warm. It snowed saturday night till about noon on sunday and then got cold. Denver set a record low for Dec 14 before midnight, of colder than minus 15 degrees Farenheit. Shade and Sadie's tank has a smaller heater and it had 1/2 inch of ice this morning. I broke them a hole and fished some ice out of the water with a 4x4, picking up once I was not going to wet my gloves. They drank some, when I went back out about 40 minutes later it was refreezing, but I scooped all ice out of the water with a strainer but left the lid of ice over most of the tank with just the 18" hole open. Hopefully that cuts down on the steam cooling.

I also got the snowmen exchanged for the pumpkins on the gate posts, and a couple of decorations up on saturday.

On Sunday the dogs and cats mostly were couch potato's, while I did some picking up and tossed much junk mail and put mags and newspapers away; getting down to bills and papers of moms. This inspired her to clean the table clear to the tablecloth so YAAY!. In the evening the cats were restless so I put up the christmas tree, which I also fondly refer to as 'the giant kitty toy'. I got it up and lights strung, and a sparse set of ornaments. Maybe mom will get in a mood to decorate it a bit more, or I'll add more ornaments, probably slowly unless I decide I must move boxes back to the garage. But we're low key with the house cleaning as you've no doubt gathered.

Not a boarding place for a while.

Our only 'boarder' has left for greener pastures, The desert was more marital, than our literal sandhill, I guess. In more proof of my social ineptness I had never heard a peep that her husband had any addiction issues etc until last weekend when she was going over details with mom while I was around.

We will miss her, she was working off most, maybe all of her board cleaning pens for mom, and doing some driving training on the minis etc. And morning chores are not much easier for me - all that has disappeared is throwing hay over the fence for her geldings. I hope she enjoys her new life. Not sure if mom will advertise for any new boarders. We wouldn't take anyone that was not self-care. With us self-care means I will throw hay in the morning (or mom would in the evening if someone wanted that schedule) but they clean their own pen, keep their water tank filled and washed to their standards, and cover 1 hay feeding and any grain/supplements feeding themselves.

I am still toying with the idea of advertising for a 'part-lease' on some of our horses. CJ and Razz, maybe AJ. Would be a minimal charge or free, but the horses stay here, so they would be spending gas money, and we have no indoor arena or anything special to lure anyone. But might be a soul out there that cant or doesn't want to own a horse right now but would like to ride a bit, and doesn't need a lesson horse or big indoor to entice them. Shouldn't hurt to put it out there IMO.

Thank goodness for my commute

ok often I wish it were 1/2 length, but the empty car sure is a good place to let out the frustrations. I am of the opinion that no good would come of listing them to mom but I am sooooooo tired of her career of being sick. Yeah I know she didn't infect her jaw bones, but she did choose to have 3 elective surgeries in maybe 20 months. Weaken our immune system anyone?! This is after working with little germ bags for years and running to the Dr for antibiotics every time a cold she picked up from one of the them lingered.


The knees were reasonable but I don't know why other than wanting to be laid up she had the H and bladder tuck so soon afterwards. Oh and the strong IV antibiotics that might have cleared up her bone infection by now were giving her dire rear -- so do you think she took the broad-spectrum probiotics I offered her from the horses? Do you think she went to a diet that would have been easiest digestibility. Oh HELL NO , wouldn't want to risk taking something not labeled for people OR give up making high fructose corn syrup the mainstay of her diet. I have tried to be understanding that food is one of the pleasures she has left with the jaw pain, but I bought her some better stuff -puddings at least made with sugar etc and she didn't eat them. I ate some of the pudding and it was pretty tasty, this was not -here eat cardboard flavored health food.


I am crabby today because I am tired of having to dunk hay but there are still many many bales from the stacks she bought this summer that NEED to be dunked to be feedable at all, and I don't want to pitch much of the hay --genius paid the per bale price they were giving to people picking and choosing minus a whole $25 per stack. That is WAY under a 10% discount and it is way more than the top (10th) layer of bales that is affected, the bottom bales are maybe useful at 60%, a good portion of the top bales probably shouldn't be being fed to equines even with dunking (but knock wood the ones I'm feeding it are doing ok so far) and then probably 20% of the next few layers is crap. I'm feeding generously to encourage them to pick and choose through what I give them, so there is probably hardly any savings versus if I had told her to just buy full price 2008 hay. She USED to be able to discern hay quality and be VERY capable of asking for a good deal, but (pain) drug addled brain was not up to it and I didn't know that this summer.

Oh and the topper is I asked her to get me a bottle of diesel stabilizer. I told her Stabil is one brand. Good thing I was too tired to get diesel last night. I might have just dumped in the gasoline stabilizer she bought. Probablly wouldn't have hurt the diesel but I had thought I might just dump the liter in even though it treats up to 80 gals, so I might have tossed the container and never known that I did NOT have protected diesel. Gee thanks mom, way to make the effort to say the extra two syllables when you ask the store help for the product.

Well got some vitamin D and vitamin H this weekend

Saturday Dr W came out and Shade got her spa treatment for her fall. She was stuck in about 4 places including front fetlock. She thought one adjustment on her withers was a bit rude, but she still loffs her spa treatments, she was licking her lips when he did her neck. Sadie thought she she should come and and get some attention too; but I'm quite sure she doesn't need any chiro work.

Then I rode RazzMo later, had to get some vitamin H and exercise the dogs. Today I rode Shade. I think she feels ok. She felt smooth but she wanted to take it easy which was fine with me. I don't want to undo adjustments by overstressing anything. It was so warm, I wore a windbreaker over a long sleeve tee, barely needed the windbreaker but I didn't care to get a sneak chill which I'm prone to. Later I was going to ride Grey but Razz and Sadie came up to me so I hopped on Razz and ponyed the wild child. This was mostly a grazing trip. Razz gave Sadie pinned ears if she came up to his head so in one way it was easier to manage ponying here. I remembered I should really worm so I turned and headed home after just a short way. The goobers both jumped at something so I told them that was the end of the grazing. Decided I didn't have enough daylight to worm and just scrubbed and filled three stock tanks when I got home though. I'll have to try and remember to worm next weekend.

dang its only wednesday morning

I don't want to write a big whine fest but I'm tired. I don't do enough power point slides, plots etc to get efficient at it, and I got behind in Oct/Nov. Stupid politics. So I ran to the office 2 days on my holiday weekend, and didn't leave last night till nearly 11pm. I have a great job, the flexible hours are awesome but every once in a while it does entail unpaid overtime.

Yesterday it was sunny, pratically hot. I grabbed Shade for a quick ride, checked my chiro appt card to see if I had an appt today, nope it was for 10:15 tuesday so I had to make it a quick ride. Shade felt good, I was having a blast but when I turned around early and let her canter up the hill she hit a soft spot in the sand and fell. Poor baby, so now the chiro is coming to see her saturday morning. I came off and got sand in my teeth, Shade got sand up under her saddle pad but popped up and seemed a bit embarrased but not hurt, she still wanted to hurry towards home. But I'm getting her checked out, if she wrenched something it wouldn't stiffen up right away. I had to wait a long time for my appt, they had an urgent walk in --if Shade had not fallen I would have been sorely tempted to say "I need to get going and I expect you not to charge me since you were not ready for me --but I stuck it out. I was out in several spots, most were probably from popping off Shade several days ago, and my neck was getting stiff --too much computer + a couple unplanned dismounts will do that - and the chiro visit seems to have nipped most of the stiffness in the bud so it worked out.

Well better finish up my coffee, grain horses and get my tired self to work.

Oh I just want to sleep

and I've only been up a couple of hours and have plenty to do today. So I better quit staring at the screen and get to it, it may be nice enough to ride tomorrow morning so I don't want to feel I'm too behind to do so.

brrr, glad I rode yesterday

Today it was cold and snowy this morning. Sunny now, but I'm at the office. Sometimes I really hate computers. We have to use a security wrapper to access any work cpu's from home. Somehow that wrapper is messed up. I can use it and connect to the main gateway, but then it blocks other internet traffic so I can't pull up the work email, or connect to a work cpu to launch a job or ...... So I drove 30 miles to the office because I needed a few jobs launched, even though I'm not in the mind frame to really work. Blech. I'll have to get the sys admin to work his magic on monday. Hopefully its not a bear for him to set things right.

But yesterday the sun was shining and I had a nice ride on Shade. She was not wanting to run, which is a bit odd for her, but I went with the flow and practiced sitting deep and heavy to cue slow from trot to walk and barely had to use the reins. It is good practice for me to do some body language work like that once in while. At the end of the ride I asked her to play 'trail horse' and let me get the newspaper and mail. She was pretty good. I would have got dinged in a class for her not sidepassing up to the box, in fact we had to circle a couple times to get close enough but she had no worries about the plastic covered paper. RazzMo was more spooky of it when I played that game with him on wednesday, so I had to forget about grabbing the mail as well with him. Shade was better about the mailbox after she realized what I was up to. She's a good mare.

of falling off horses and staying on

Saturday I rode Shade in the late afternoon after I put my new S-hack on her headstall. I've been using an ancient long shank mechanical hackamore for rides where I might need power brakes and a sidepull at home, but I was wanting more brakes sometimes at home and didn't need at much brake even when she was excited at a ride and wanted a hack with a smaller noseband and a grazing shank. Well I let Shade run up the hill a the end of the ride and stood in the stirrups in case the brakes weren't enough as we approached the turn. DOH, Shade did one of her bouncy stops and maybe a very mild duck and I popped right over her head. I 'know' to sit deep on this horse and sitting deep is better body language for I want you to slow down and stop soon. But nothing like hitting the ground to reinforce the lesson.

Today went much better. We didin't canter. Shade was so trembly at the end of the ride yesterday and I wasn't sure if it was all nerves or she over taxed her hind tendon that got bruised a few weeks ago when Razz and her were kicking at each other. So we went slow, I sat deep and centered and that with the slower pace meant my seat stayed solid as Shade spooked at some tumbleweeds caught in fences. I guess they look like mountian lions at first glance. Especially when you've never seen an actual mountain lion to get specifics. Then when we got home the wind was picking up so I turned the her and Sadie and the 4 horses in the bigger paddock out into the weedy 'pasture' to play and browse. Everybody ran full tilt so Shade gave the tendon a hard workout after all.

Had a trespasser this morning

Mia likes to come in after I do morning feeding and have an hour or so of warm napping. Today when I went to head back out to grain and polish things off there was a raccoon looking for food -I'd put Mia's dish up so Ole wouldn't eat all the high price special kidney diet stuff she's still getting about 50% (last bag I'm buying I hope --see how she does on the lamb and rice moderate protein stuff she's getting mixed in with the K/D stuff) So the coon was grubbing for spilled bits and then it decided it would take a nap on Mia's bed.

Must be the season for coons. Remudamom had one yesterday too.
see her blog entry about it here

Sorry, but our trespassing coon was not shot with a camera, but with a bullet. I was not taking any chances of it killing one of the cats or getting cornered by a dog and ripping them up; and while our trespasser just seemed bold as brass and not rabidly aggressive I'm not taking any chances with rabies. It really surprised me to have a coon. We are a full mile from the closest irrigation ditch -which still has water run through it every few weeks it seems but its not a regular water source, and we are farther from than that from any steady water source. No cornfields or anything.

Maybe some idiot in the subdivision thought they were having an exotic pet. Well whether it was feral and just too young to have any fear of people or dogs or someone tamed it and then let it wander it has crossed the bridge now.

My mom is such an Oh bambi. I asked her to get a gun out of the safe so I could shoot the coon and she was like, "I don't know if I can remember the combination, or get the right bullets ..... just call the neighbors" So I did, but I'm going to ask dad to show me how. Mom used to be the ranchers wife who could take care of things like this herself and I was the girl who'd never had to because we moved to an almost suburban area and I just have a desk job but I guess the roles are reversing.

Sadie you WENCH

We've had lovely warm weather the last few days. My weekend horse time consisted of a brief ride on Razz on saturday and hauling discarded carpet on sunday to make a nearly sand free environment for Diamond on sunday. Well I did wipe out a couple of barrels sunday so I can buy some diesel while the price is relatively low and ground drove Diamond for 2 minutes, and helped take harness off Frosty after it slipped while he was wearing it for practice in his pen. Thankfully he did not break it and settled down well once mom and I got him into the little side pen and V and Diamond were there.

So today is another Indian summer day and I needed to ride before I bit off an innocents head. So I grabbed Grey Moun and Sadie and went out. They were enjoying the warm sun and green grass as I let them mosey and grab grass the first few hundred yards. Then we walked and trotted a ways and I turned around when we hit a longish gravel stretch, I baby them the week after trimming. So we are heading home and I go for a bit of trot/canter work. Well mistake #1, a yearling is not a good candidate to pony at faster speeds and I've been pushing my luck every time I've done it.

Mistake #2, I tend to give my horses too much line when I pony them and I didn't shorten my line up good before asking for a trot.

Result. My wench filly spurted in front of Grey Moun a little bit and kicked up her heels. Her left rear hoof connected with my right lower leg. OUCH. In fact its was ouch ouch ouch, #@! you Sadie, tight circle around and I kicked her in the ribs. Of course that had no force behind it since I was still mounted on Grey Moun.

So we walked the rest of the way home with Sadie on a much shortened lead. She put her ears back at Grey/me at one point and I yelled at her and then took her head right up to my lap for a bit of time-out. So ponying will have to be strictly slower speeds with her. Her and Shades pen is plenty big to run around in and she gets to play in the weed patch pasture once a week. And maybe I'll suck it up and do some oval pen work with her. Sigh, ground work is not my cup of tea.



On the 8th I had a better time with Sadie and Grey. Here's a pic from that day. We went over a pile of wood chips --spongy footing effect and up and down the bank into the dry irrigation ditch that day.

sleepy saturday

I've been almost nodding most of the day. Hope I'm not getting sick, I believe flu shot day at work is next week. Guess I'll get one if I don't feel sick right then. I opened the gate so the horses could play and browse in the bottom 5 acres. Grabbed Razz as the sun was geting low, which happens way too early now, and still over a month to the solstice.

I grabbed Razz because I didn't feel solid enough to ride Shade and he is easy to catch. He was a good boy, he got a bit jumpy when I tried and failed to swing on so I wouldn't have to walk up from the pasture -did I mention I was being lazy today. I would have failed even if he had stood statue still. We took the shortest of rides down the road and then I turned around because it was already getting so dark.

Decided to try to bring the horses into the dry lots and shut the gate before unsaddling and Razz was a bit unsure of this but he went along with my wishes. Shade and Sadie came up to see what was going on and Shade stayed up but I had to fetch Cindy, GreyMoun and CJ and Sadie swirled around being a young arab filly. I think Grey would have walked up when he saw me at the gate but Cindy wasn't coming and he was sticking with her. It was about like herding cats to get CJ and Cindy to go to and through the gate, but thankfully neither took off running the other way. Finally they all went thru the gate and took off running, which made Razz want to go too. I took him in an ess and stopped him and hopped off to get the gate shut. I just left the english rein over his neck and didn't ask him to stay with me -- For a second I thought Razz was going to go thru the gate before I got it closed but I waved him back and he decided to just sprint up to join the rest of the horses at the feeders. Now I have to go feed AJ and Duke. I forgot that mom told V that she is ready to feed now. I better find out if V is feeding all the mini's or we are haying Diamond and Frosty first. Better get going on that before I fall asleep in the chair. LOL

Politics again --what is happening to me ?!

Well if nothing else I think the last three 4 year elections are my slap upside the head from god/universe whatever that I cannot continue to simply stay on the sidelines while the politically enthused pick the candidates. I haven't had a presidential candidate I was excited about since I cant remember. Reagan maybe, but I was too young to vote in his first race and I think I hadn't gotten organized to vote when I was at college the second term.

I don't mind so much not having a president that thrills me if congress is working. I disliked how Clinton seemed to delay decisions or announcements until the polls showed acceptance but the country seemed to work pretty well with the republican congress as a counter balance.

But really the choices of candidates these last few times are as big a slap upside the head as a person could get. What did Bush have going for him besides nostalgia for Reagan and appeal to the religious right? Gore should have won between the two of them -- the country was happy with the status quo, but he came across as such an elitist snob (or at best we had Bore vs Gush ) that folks simply couldn't vote for him. I voted 3rd party. I voted for Kerry 4 years ago but I didn't really trust him fully and I felt the country was not going to elect a "Massachusetts liberal" Now I simply cant fathom how in Hades we went from Kerry = too liberal to Obama is just right.

So I simply cannot join the dems, I don't see any good odds of wresting the party back? from the socialists who dominate it now. That leaves the republicans. I'd like another contract with America this time to get the entitlement monkey off our backs and if they don't get some sensible views I think they just wont get it -- IMO we have to limit who gets these entitlements, mainly with higher ages to be eligible. And I don't think an across the board rise in ages will work. It needs to be couched as affecting only the upper class. So I would propose something like -- minimum age X, OR X # of years contributing FICA taxes full time. Honestly scientists, middle managers etc that spent 4-8 years in college before joining the workforce are as a group much more able to work into their 70's than a coal miner or construction worker -- and if they would prefer not to, they are more likely to have saved up for retirement and they can manage a few years on their own before they need social security and medicare to cover the gaps.

Thinking in song lyrics

I find myself thinking in song lyrics quite often.

some titles of ones that resonate lately:

"If you're going through Hell" Rodney Atkins,

"Working man blues" Merle Haggard'

"Heres a quarter" Travis Tritt -(for about 60%)

Her new family sent a pic of Paloma, nee Lady,

The Paso Fino I bought from my friend Deby's mom in westhern KS this spring to rehome is doing well. The P family has found a place to keep her just a couple blocks from their house, and close to the highline canal. Shes done her first trail ride on the canal and met the mini donkeys. The pic was taken before they brought her down from their friends in Confier. Looks like she still loves her girls, I got a kick out of how she almost always had an ear cocked to her girl when they were coming here to ride her the first month on the lease to own.

took me a while but I'm happy with election results

Conventional wisdom is that that losing party goes more moderate to appeal to independent voters like me but I think Gore was green but not liberal overall. Kerry may not have been hardcore liberal but he kept his Massachusets base happy; then this year Edwards was behind from the start and I do recall that Hillary led the push to attempt national healthcare in 93, and she is on the short list of FOCA bill sponsors along with Obama; and well to anybody who thinks Obama is not very liberal perhaps you'd like to stay at our lovely Colorado beachfront property sometime and get some sand in your shoes.

I wish voters would have overturned congress as well this year; but if McCain had won this year congress would most likely have swung even more liberal through the next 2 elections. Since congress passes the laws and budgets, six more years of what we've had the last two years would be a scary thought to me. Now with no republican president to blame problems on, there is a very good chance that we can get a majority of fiscal conservatives into congress in 2010. Perhaps my fantasy will even come true and they will be socially conservtive only in the sense of believing that goverment should STAY OUT of people's private lives. What I consider the old school conservative style.

Oh and anyone who is liberal should be happy. You have two years to convince the me and/or the world -most of which is not starting in skeptical mode like I am; that your way works better. So far all I've heard from the left is pre excuses of how big the mess is; but hey if they get off their butts and make good things happen I'll respect that.

Voter Fraud --

There is no doubt in my mind that there was voter fraud in our U.S. elections which finished yesterday. This is not some conspiracy theory that the election was stolen, Obama's margin is definite. There was fraud but it was not that extensive.

However I feel like all law abiding citizens who vote their conscience ONE time need to demand that the fraud is stamped out before the next congressional election in 2010 when races may well be much tighter and especially before the next presidential + congressional elections in 2012. Now how can I work to help this along as a plain citizen who usually sees voting as a duty/chore. Just like feeding the horses I want it done right, so I do some basic research on the issues and candidates but I cannot see politics becoming a hobby for me. I like hobbies that remove stress from my life, like riding.

Thanks Grey Moun

I needed a quick spin this morning to chase off election + halloween candy hangover and my 20 year old best buddy equine friend came through for me again.   He's such a grand horse.   Believe me or not he has even more personality than shows in the picture. 

I'm getting power on my lot in WY

I bought this lot, thinking all the hills would be great to keep endurance horses fitted up.  Not thinking too much about easy building.   I'd probably be wise to buy another lot with more level ground.  Trouble is the lot that fits that bill borders the highway which I don't really like.  I'd like to buy just a few flatter acres next to my lot but the owners don't want to split off any so far.   We'll see what happens.   If I won the lottery buying an extra lot would be no problem.  But I seldom even play so thats pretty unlikely.     I love my land even with its challenges, it feels so peaceful there.  

its a woman's prerogative to change her mind

 I've been spelling that wrong for 20-some years.  But spell-checker and google search say  it starts with pre, so ok.

I rode some this weekend.   Took Sadie out on saturday.  Grey is such a saint doing this.  Sadie was just full of herself.  Was not terribly bad, just a LOT of jumping into a canter, cutting in front of Grey after doing so etc.   She jumped hard when Ole startled her near some trees and pulled the rope out of my hand,  I was a bit scared she was going to run through downed barbwire fences dashing for home but she ran a bit and then turned to see why we were not running with her.   She was too full of herself to let me approach on Grey Moun, but waited when I got off and walked up to her.   

But after that I got more rigorous, short hold of her lead and insisted she go the gait I called for etc.    as we headed home.   Then I rode Razz in the fading light.   Did very little packing for Moab and felt tired in the evening.

Sunday,  I rode Shade,  she did not feel right the first 40% of the ride and again I felt exhausted, so I was having doubts about the wisdom of asking her for 1 or 2 50 mile rides on the 31 and Nov 1.    

Monday  was day 1 of a workshop:   GPS on ocean platforms.   great energy, it was hard to stay connected to the network to get cpu's set-up for more work after they finished runs.  I do hate to take vacation and have cpu's sitting idle because I didn't set up big runs for them to churn on while I was gone.  And I was tired and had to take a sudafed at lunch to ward off a head-ache. 

SO-- I decided Moab is scratched.  Canceled my appt for health cert. from clinic in Golden etc.

Tuesday,  the usual stress of trying to get a diverse group of scientists to agree on just 1 or 2 goals came up --it can be like herding cats.    When I went to my office for a couple hours after the workshop was finished I had a message from my normal clinic that he would write me a health cert.      I have also decided that inflation is a concern and I need to make my land improvements and long term purchases now.    

So wednesday   I called the power company to meet on Nov 3 to set up getting power.   They'll only have to put in a few poles so it should not be too costly,  then I called my vet's office and said "lets write the health certs for WY.    Rode Shade and was darned glad I had scratched Moab thoughts.  She was sore on her right rear,  short striding at the walk.    --Good thing for RazzMo I already decided *I* did not want to go to Moab,   he had come over and got in a kicking snit with Shade when I put her away sunday.   He leaves tomorrow or early saturday to pack dad around the mountains for a week, so he'll be working hard  and I'm glad of it.   I slathered Shades whole leg with sore-no-more liniment.  

Today Shade was walking much better.  Whew.  I did not want to give her bute,  she got an upset stomach from getting it for 1 week several years ago and I'm very hesitant to give it to her at all ever since.   If she needs it I'll give her some acid reducer as well but I could not find any this morning.     Yesterday I loaded most of the tack dad will need for his trip in the nose of the gooseneck.  Today I hooked up his camper that he tows in a bob-tail hitch for horse camping trips -- he is a professional truck driver.    I also got down some of the hunting stuff from the attic.

Normally I give minimal help packing for the hunting trip, but dads company has him been running him around instead of getting him home by sunday to start his 2 weeks of vacation.  He wont get home till this afternoon, and he has set up stuff on my new trailer; and mom is still dragging.   They have her infection licked but now her body is attacking the dental implants.  She had hoped to save them, but they will most likely have to take at least some out and she's been getting knocked with jaw pain again.   Such an endless cycle of sickness.    

Carpe Diem

Heh, would not surprise me if I have mis-spelled that.   But I've been in a funk with the credit crisis,  although it does not affect me directly and the elections and lots of doom and gloom predictions of what 'could' happen.   So I decided I had better seize the brass ring and go to Moab this year, while I can, instead of crossing if off, worrying not being well enough prepared to justify the drive.   It was looking like I left it too late to get a health certificate but I found a clinic in Golden that will do it 3:30 wednesday.  Then I can get some ways down the road before dark,  layover and have a leisurely drive to Moab on thursday.   Now I need to find a layover spot.

Lady, now known as Pamona,  does not need to board at our place for a month.  The renovations at the P's neighbor with a paddock came together this week and that neighbor is going to fetch her from Conifer.  More room for me to get a training ride in this weekend,  Moab is just meant to be I think.    

I got enough horse fix yesterday with a quick ride on RazzMo and today with a 5.5 mile ride on Shade to get through the week too.   So YAY, its not feeling to bad to wrap up my work week, be on call this weekend nor even to have early start on Monday with a workshop.   Said workshop could mean good things at work; I sure hope we get lots of positive energy out of it.  I'm so happy my new supervisor is so dynamic.   We needed it, sadly it was not going to come from me, but I'm a good 'make it happen' person after someone else gets the ball rolling. 

getting low on vitamin H

I was wimpy this morning and opted not to try to ride in the chilly wind.  I did at least get a good start on getting the pen where I'll put Lady ready for her.   I'm leaning towards thinking I cant go to Moab again.   Its not looking good for mom to be ready to do morning feeding and I don't have a health certificate, don't have the trailer all ready to go, I should just get organized to take a day trip trail ride this weekend and next (Moab) weekend instead ........

None of those things would be a show stopper if I'd had the mindset to go to Moab all along, but they may keep be from deciding 'yes I can drive several hours one way just to have fun'   

aaahhh, I love early voting

Now I can totally rasberry any commercials I hear.   Neener neener neener,  I already voted my conscience, cant change my mind now.  

In horsey news.   Lady is coming to live at our place again for a month or two starting this weekend.   I  need to move a feed trough out of there, shut the gate and start getting it cleaned up better.   But today's horse activity ended with feeding and unloading the feed I bought yesterday --yesterdays activity was feeding and swinging by the co-op to buy feed.

Sunday I did ride,  aaaaahhhhh.     Had a fun little ride on Shade and a quick spin on Razz before light ran out.    Saturday I wormed Sadie, and mom's mini's and worked a bit on trailer loading with Sadie.  The good news is I can get her front feet in the new horse trailer -the bad news is I still haven't got her stepping all the way in.  I could with a helper or if I HAD to but I don't want to push her much at this point.   I decided I wont bother worming the adult horses until the next cycle when we've had a hard freeze.   They've been wormed more the last 18 months than usual due to me having Sadie, this round I decided I'll worm her but not worry about her picking up worms from the others since I'll dose with ivermectin after we get a hard freeze and kill off the durned flies.   I think our frosts took out most of the fly parasites, the flies seem thicker than ever.   I must remember to buy some more fly bait next time I buy joint supplements.  Going to try a different brand,  with luck maybe it will work without having to mix it with something to attract flies.  

finally rode Shade this morning

I rode three mornings this week and 2 of those on RazzMo.   I am such a good daughter.  Of course if I would be better in parental eyes if I lived hours away and sent flowers a few times a year.   "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" is 200% true with  parents and kids.  

Oh well, whine whine.   I'm in a crummy mood because I cant even persuade my mom to vote for McCain.   I'm sorry but I'd rather have a few problems than have government dictating even more of life than they already do and that is exactly what Senator O wants to do.   I wonder how hard it is to emigrate to Canada?  Too hard to get horses to Oz, and they seem to have an awful lot of nannying from the government themselves so I no longer find myself thinking it would be so awesome to go live in the outback or bush, like I did as a teenager.   

Its crazy because one of the dings on McCain in my (myth of a maverick) book is that he wants to regulate as well --yes, he wants government regulation to catch up with modern banking/stock exchange and so on and clean up abuses including those within government.     He doesn't want to force everyone whose business they started has grown enough to hire someone to buy them medical insurance and so on.   Well the U.S. is going to get the president they deserve if they elect Obama.   And I guess I'll be in that camp for not studying up on democratic nominees earlier.   I encouraged my democrat co-workers to support Obama if they couldn't support Edwards.     Now I think I'd prefer Hilary but its too late. 

OK, I need to get back to horses

They are my sanity and for all my writing that things will be ok no matter what happens on Nov 4, I've been investing too much mental energy. Its for nothing, I don't have the gift of persuasion so I simply have to let it be now that I have filled out my lengthy ballot. Oh the joys of living in a state where competing amendents can be placed on the ballot in addition to all the candidate choices.

Saturday was a good day to huddle in the house and so I did. With an average of 300 days of sun a year I don't have to learn to deal with rain and especially rain and only about 5 C above freezing. Sunday was dry and just a bit warmer so I enjoyed a ride on Shade. Mia was feeling GREAT, she crossed the few inches of water in the irrigation ditch to get to burr-less road on the other side and continued with me. Ole found a leg bone in the CRP he prowled around in rather than sticking with us. I came back to road 35 and announced to Shade that I needed more fun so we had to go a ways down it and back rather than straight home. Ole tagged along for this part, leaving his bone somewhere. He's such an oddball dog. No pics of Shade or the dogs today.

Then after a bit of couch potato time in the house I grabbed Grey and Sadie for a bit of a ride with lots of grass munching for the 'starving' yearling. Heres a pic of Grey Moun and Cindy in the paddock. Grey is the far horse whose head I caught.

Yesterday I grabbed RazzMo and took him for quick spin. He is fun to ride and is bored. I also want him to be a bit legged up before hauling dad in the mountains in a few weeks but if he were a pain to ride he'd just have to suffer when dad goes hunting.   The crabby ears here were warning the other horses that Razz gets first dibs if I had cookies (I never do because he gets so clem-like for them) and any good scritching.    I hope mom gets healthy in a few months and starts riding Razz; he really could use some serious saddle time and my horses could use double the time I spend on Razz.   I need to spend less time at a keyboard.  

Did I just do that?

I just filled in the comments section on his web page and told McCain (ok - only whatever low level staffer is assigned to read that block of comments) how *I* think he needs to attack Obama. At least this time when I say 'they should have listened to me' "they" did have a bit of a chance to do so. Early in 2004 I told co-workers that Kerry could not win because any Mass. senator was going to seem too liberal to much of heartland america. Too bad no one passed it on to the stupid democrats, they all fell in line and voted for K in the primaries, because K won a few very early primaries so 'was most electable' and was a war veteran. DOH. I voted for him, although I wasn't 100% for him. Just wanted it clear to Bush that he didn't have any mandate to continue.

And I'll vote for McCain but I don't subscribe to 'the sky will fall; children will be indoctrinated to communism in schools, our taxes will go back up to 1970 rates yada yada yada if Obama is elected' I'm voting for Markey (D) in my HoR race. I don't think I've ever voted for Musgrave and she has not done much that I like, I wont vote for her now JUST for the sake of gridlock, I have some feeling that Markey as a business person is not just going to vote in lock step with her party, she'll vote against extremely liberal items. Or if she proves not to be a 'midwest' democrat, I'll wont keep voting for her. Us darned independent voters, splitting tickets and going with who we like at the time, hahahaha.

My prediction is ......

We will have a one term president.

I hope this is not just wishful thinking if the young Democrat wins. Unless my gut level feeling of him is wrong, and lord knows I don't have any special skills for "reading" or understanding people so maybe that is the case, I wish for it but I can't believe.

Of course oddball renegade that I am, reading the con book on Obama by Jerome Corsi did not bother me much; its the pro book "the Faith of Barack Obama" that is giving me unhappy vibes. Perhaps thats why I'm for McCain, I only bought a con book about him, LOL.

Link to some horse pics

Here is part of Sadies curious face.

HorseAlbum_on_PhotoBucket
The light gray horses are Cindy and Grey Moun. Cindy is the near horse when they're together. Cindy was born in 1982 and Grey in 1988. I am thankful to be in the age of digital cameras. My non skill is still apparent but I can at least halfways center my subjects when I put them on the computer and it is fun to get the personality pictures. As you can see Grey has oodles of character.


The red bay roan/grey horse is RazzMo. Mom and I bought him together 3 years ago, then I gifted my shares in him to mom and dad to cover some anniversaries and so on. The grumpy ears are for the other horses. Razz wants dibs on any scritchies or treats. He's almost a bully but he defers to Shade for some reason and he doesn't push the other horses beyond choosing which feeder he wants and sometimes having to check all the feeders out. Sometimes I have to push him a bit when I'm taking another horse out.

fun time with Grey and Sadie this morning

I took pictures of them in their paddocks as I was leaving for work and forgot my card reader to download. Oh well they are pretty rough pics anyway. But the ride was fun. I was thinking I was moving too slow and needed to just leave for work but Ole gave me his best hangdog look so decided I'd take a quick ride to give the dogs some exercise.

I just love my arabians. Grey was being kind of silly, had to duck away from the neighbors big landscaping boulder on the way out and both he and Sadie spun around when Mia came out of the next neighbors yard (or at the trash cans -silly boos) but I pulled Grey up easily and Sadie stopped before she hit the end of the lead, which was good because I had dropped it and had to grab it up quick. I made Grey back a couple times after he turned around saying we can't go by 'that' piece of discarded junk when we had turned onto the dirt road that is only utility access and where folks from the nearby town think they can toss old furniture etc. I tell myself its good to get horses over worrying about every little thing they see off the side of the trail instead of fretting over other peoples bad behavior.

Today there was a partially deflated mylar balloon about the point I was ready to stop. I got Grey to go just past it and sweet curious Sadie sniffed it really good. Then when we went back past the scary new large mattress I asked Grey to stop for a minute and Sadie grabbed a quick bite next to it. 17 month old arabian curiosity is so fun. On the way home a Schwann's truck was coming up behind us. -he had been stopped talking on the ph or something when we turned the corner onto the graveled road. Sadie got a bit silly, jumped forward and hit the end of her lead and was almost coming in front of Grey Moun. He's still my boy, he isn't scared of noise and made no fuss. He was an angel while I got Sadie gathered up short and put them both in the ditch with her on the far side from the truck and the driver went around. Sadie was pretty much like 'oh wait thats not a big deal' by this time.

This is why I usually avoid news and politics

This year I felt the need to inform myself of both candidates, although I checked out various outside parties at one point of frustration. Well all I can say is they are outside parties for good reason.

But the lies being bandied about this year are so disgusting. There are distortions on both sides but the vicious outright lies about Palin are shocking. So many disparage her for lack of experience and not having large Q&A sessions with the press that one might think no democrat/liberal/insert_your_own_term could fear her in the slightest. BUT one does not use lying sneak attacks on someone they don't consider a serious foe and saying that Palin's Downs syndrome child was really her grandchild -and who knows how long that would have gone on if her daughter was not pregnant? -- and now twisting a backwards Alaska-wide situation that existed while she was the mayor of Wasilla and making it sound like that was the only town where hospitals charged the victim's insurance companies for the rape kit testing in total disregard for truth and facts. Disgusting fear mongering by some of the media. I am even more pissed off at them than usual.

http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2008/09/24/old-media-pushes-false-rape-kit-charge-against-gov-palin

Oh well, in spite of the stupidity that many individuals in the country are so capable of, I actually feel like the country itself will be ok regardless of who wins the presidency. Perhaps it will be better to have the socialist leaning candidate I have to vote against win as the polls seem to suggest is likely. We do have a congress and a supreme court, its not like he can go hog wild with his desires to redistribute wealth in this country - and I don't like 40 million payoff to CEO's who have ruined their companies myself. My biggest worry is that I think he will make things worse by withdrawing from Iraq. We should NOT have gone in, but thats water over the bridge now and I think just pulling out on a timetable and moving soldiers to Afghanistan will only shift the problems in Afghanistan to Iraq but about 10 times worse. But I can hope I'm wrong or maybe that he wont even be so drastic if he does wear the CIC hat. And perhaps the polls are off. I surely cant be the only person who distrusts them and also hates to talk on the phone and tends to hang up before they can start any kind of survey, plus I'm at work when they would call, Oh I love my shifted hours job!

Here's Shades picture

I had to psych myself up to pay the download fee for this one from Time Well Spent photography/smugmug.

I am so spoiled by often having Karl creations photographers Deb and Paschal at rides I go to. I usually buy every picture they've printed; because they charge so little I figure I'll keep the bad shots away from other eyes --bad meaning my form was crappy or I just look ugly, if they take a bad shot they don't bother to print it.

I shuddered at the side on shots from this ride. I had thought I had my shoulders back and head up and was shocked to see how forward my feet were. Yuck. You can tell even in the front view pics that my feet are forward. Oh well Shade didn't get sore, just something for me work on. I had a dressage form lesson with V today -rode RazzMo, he is good for working on form, being super smooth and not as energetic as Shade, and we worked on some things so I have specific 'homework' At least it is not totally alien feeling to ride correctly now, so I have not lost all progress from the spring lessons. I just need to get better form all the time so it will feel weird to not be sitting up straight like I should do. I was going to take a pic of Razz this morning but I forgot. Oh well I have another lesson next week.

Love my steel magnolia

I didn't even take my camera so I'll have to buy an official ride photo and she hasn't got them online yet so this is another picture-less entry. I'm not a great photographer anyway, but getting up at 4 am and leaving by 5:30 to get to the ride pretty much guaranteed I was not going to think about grabbing extra little things like a camera.

Shade did her 5th 50 of the season in about 6 hours 35 minutes ride time. It was a fast ride, we were about 12 of 18 for finish order but there were quite a few more serious riders at this one. Folks missed some turns early and it took quite a while for all the faster riders to actually pass us. Getting passed gives a boost to the pace for a while.

I had SO much fun that I'm torn about calling this a season or hauling several hours to Utah or New Mexico for a late fall ride. I'll have to see how much conditioning riding I want to do after a bit of recovery and just do some general mulling. But I'll be smiling about this ride for a while.

I forgot a few things, the biggest being sunscreen lotion. Had to leave my l/s shirt on over my tee all day, and thank goodness for my 5" cashel visor. I still got a bit of sunburned face but luckily the metrogel I use anyway is great for sunburns. It was 83 for the high and low humidity so I didn't feel bad. Hot enough for fuzzy Shade to be plenty warm. I went Pbttt to the philosophy that one should keep an even pace all day and let Shade cruise faster in the cool morning, then we took it easy the last half of the ride. It was still warm and my white and blue stripe l/s shirt was filthy so I took it off before heading to the ride supper, then in the shade of the indoor arena and after eating I felt cool so I took a long sleeved tee for my completion award and put it on right away. Found out that pizza is not the best ride meal for me. I loff it, but the tomato paste seemed too acidic, even though I helped myself to some of the salads, and a big piece of cinnamon crumb cake as well.

I had pulled in on the 1 lane road that rims a catch basin for spring run-off. It was plenty dry and solid, we've had dry fall weather but I was not sure of pulling down the bank. Figured I never leave that early so I'd be able to just pull all the way around later but that didn't work out. Other people had driven down the bank after I parked so I tied Shade to a fence JIC and cowboyed up and took the trailer down, then decided it would be easier over all to just pull back up on the road so I did that. Shade hesitated to load as usual and I did not have a stock whip, found that running the lead over a close support and just poking her with my finger was all I needed, really don't need to get extra long lead to go around a forward support or a stick, just need a wee aid to keep her head forward while I come to her mid-section.

I think Grey Moun was quite pleased as he got to eat his head off friday night with Shade, and then V had fed all the horses before I got home, with Grey still in the little pen so he got to eat eat eat again saturday with Shade. I gave the other group a small snack to make sure Sadie wasn't shorted with being in with the two pushy young geldings. Then went to bed early and slept like a rock.

TGIF

I had to retype that, been that kind of week and day. Thank goodness I hooked up my little trailer today. Its the first time I've done so since taking the camper off my pickup, and the trailer jack could not lift my hitch high enough with the truck not squatted down from the weight of the camper. I had to get a cinder block under my tongue, raise my jack a few inches and get a thicker block under it; then start the getting hooked up process over. That would not have been fun to realize in the morning darkness.

I guess its lucky I need daylight to hook up and turn my trailer around, otherwise I would have left it till tomorrow and been cussing the delay. Oh I hope the ride goes ok. I always get a few extra butterflies when I choose to trailer over in the morning. I'm not a morning person and have managed to mess up driving to the ride in the past. I better be able to recall from April and the many years I've been going to it this time!

I opened the gate so Sadie and Shade could play with the other 4 horses some this morning and I could get Shade in the small pen. Well she had other ideas this morning so I asked mom to just have V skip feeding them so they are more likely to go where I want tonight. I'll have to allow some extra time for Shade to run around in the morning regardless. Just the nature of my girl, she likes to tease me a bit, and especially when she senses the butterflies.

well shoot , I've been scooped.

There I was, dinking around a bit, and doing a bit of mental email wording to announce that the occulation count at work hit a high point. Its only the 2nd time its gone over 2500. And wouldn't you know it, Karl checks things from home and scoops me. I feel so blah. Not great job security vibes ya know. Like why are they paying me to be here if he's checking things for free almost every night?

Why we named him Sven

OK - first you have to know the Ole/Sven/Lena jokes. Do a search for Sven and Ole jokes if you need background.


Today I grabbed an old web halter next to where Shade was, rather than her usual halter and I chose the ratty soft lead over the stiff one. As I groomed her Sven had to come over and play with the lead.


I went to the house and grabbed my camera rather than grabbing a clean lead to protect the kitty from the "spooky AYrab." LOL, although she can start pretty good at times.



So Shade entertained 4 souls today. Ole looks pensive because he cant wait till we get started, Mia isn't in the pic but we did a short loop and she tagged along too and I made sure Shade and I didn't go over top of her. Then I left the dogs at home and rode Shade a bit more. The goofball had some spazz moments riding actually, but no harm to her or me.

okay I do NOT bake and I barely cook but ........

You know all those blogs that give great recipes -- well this is not one of them! But a couple approximations anyway.

1) Its still zuccinni season. This humble, over productive squash is actually perfect for me eating microwaved frozen entrees. Those tv dinners are usually light on the vegetables so slicing zuccinni in to fill up the trays works great.

2) single dieters microwave brownie bran muffin. -this is super easy, quick, tasty and satisfies for a good length of time. and has chocolate --its perfect for my world.

a) spread approx. 1/2 tsp of butter in a glass ramekin, or one of those little porcelain coffee cups --you know the ones you always pass by, because you want at least a small mug of coffee, not a 4-5 oz petite cupful.
b) take 2 tablespoons of brownie or cake mix and 2 tablespoons of bran and put in your greased dish.
c) stir in water.
d) add choc chips, fresh or dried fruit or a spoonful of jam. (I like dried, sweetened cranberries or bananas and love the chips)
e) if you LOVE chocolate stir in 1/2 to 1 tsp of cocoa --(just pretend you actually measure )
f) pop it in the microwave for about 1 minute. More if your microwave is ancient like mine or if you got the mix extra runny or added moist fruit like bananas. This is not fussy, if its still wet on top, just pop it back in for several seconds.
g) enjoy your low fat (VERY low fat if you didn't add chips) treat.
h) fill your dish with water to soak --don't skip this step or that bran and mix will get hard as cement.

just skip this bit of vetching

I really felt no need to spend anything on a gift for a wedding that I was not invited to attend, of two people who each earn more than I do and have both been married previously ....... just because they happen to be from 'my group' at work. .....BUT since the co-workers who did feel compelled to send something on behalf of all of us both have kids and less disposable income than me I didn't want to scrooge them. And I wont miss the equivalent of 3 lattes much either -its just the principal of the thing that has me whining at least in my web journal.

Maybe I just need more horse time this weekend. Its been lovely weather all week and I only had the one short ride on tuesday. I wanted to ride today and Shade was probably fine, but since RazzMo still seems to be feeling fairly punky and Shade was very quiet yesterday getting her feet done I decided I should let all the horses have another rest day.

rabies vaccine yesterday =extra quiet horses for farrier today

hmmm --maybe its too bad I don't vaccinate for every last thing. --None of the horses seemed sore or miserable today after getting their rabies shots yesterday but they were all extra quiet to be worked on. This means only Razz and CJ tugged feet, and Sadie only tried to chew on me but was not a squirmy mess. -- I gave Sadie some horse treats and she thought she should have more, oh well I'm a softy, she didn't actually bite me so I pretty much let it slide that she was tugging at my windbreaker trying to find extra treats.

But sniff sniff, I am going to have to find a new farrier before too long. R is going to move to South Carolina when her house sells. Her husband took a job there. They were on verge of divorce but reconciled but in meantime he had lost his job here and took one in South Carolina. I'm trying to be noble and be happy for her and did say "oh good" when she announced reconciliation. But its hard to find a really good farrier, and Shade needs someone who is pretty skilled. I don't put near the miles on her that some endurance horses get, but its enough that things have to be correct and Shade will grow more uneven if the farrier does not get her close to perfect.

Well I guess the car union is official ......

I got the DMV paperwork monday and put the plates on the Saturn after driving to mom's dr appointment and on to Boulder. Thankfully she felt ok to drive home. Today I stopped on the way to work and got the oil changed. They sold me the older-car blend and an air filter and it was only a bit of change shy of $75.00 Makes me miss my prius all over again. The oil changes at the dealership were under $40. They only billed $14 of the 74.xx as parts and 4.xx as tax so even if I bought the high end synthetic blend oil and filter myself I'd be saving quite a bit. Well I'll have to call around. I'm such a grease magnet that I really don't want to be dealing with DIY oil changes, but dang I AM mostly a frugal norwegian/swedish girl too.

I seized some fun time and rode Shade this morning though. She felt better, but I rode RazzMo sunday and he felt uneven to me also so I had decided it must be me that is uneven rather than the horse(s) before I started today. I put a Little Joe on Shade so I could have good feel. I'll still have Dr M look at her tomorrow if he has time. Dang I forgot to call and see if we could schedule some extra time. Hopefully everything else goes fast and we will be ok on the time front.

Heres a pic of RazzMo, doing his primary job, packing my dad around when he goes elk and deer hunting --its only a short term gig every year but its important.

willful ignorance abounds

aack -must vent a bit.

How does this country survive? We have so many people who just cannot think logically.

I'm sorry but a $1 price in fuel prices after a hurricane that hit coastal refineries is NOT a surprise, its not a conspiracy by the oil companies. Its JUST how things are.

Honestly Katrina was only 3 years ago. Prices rose by a $1 then in a steeper % increase. Ike took his sweet time coming through the caribbean and the gulf and while the predictions of where he would hit changed a lot that whole area is dotted with oil platforms and refineries. Folks who couldn't absorb a price increase had NO business not keeping their tanks topped up and doing everything possible to avoid having to make any extra trips from Sep 12-28 (roughly) and really they have no excuse for not knowing what would happen; although I don't think I heard ANY recommendations to do this from our HUGE media. I guess the daily lives of celebrity blondes and picking apart stupid campaign commercials were too engrossing so the media couldn't be bothered to compile and distribute information that would actually be valuable to folks PBTTTTTT to the whiners and the media.

saturn is still in Boulder

Did the money exchange thursday. Bit of a gulp at the credit union. Let me see if we have that amount, we usually make people call for over 3k. Well I would have just had a bank check for the balance but they gave me the whole bit in cash.

Friday went to DMV office which is thanfully just 10 miles away. I needed to get insurance before I could get plates, could have called to learn that but then I would not have known that the seller needed to sign her middle name and had not so I had to get her to sign another form. She was kind of evading me, downloaded the form and faxed it to me, I was unsure of that so I called the DMV office and they said I had to have the original form so then I called seller back and asked to meet her at her work and get her signature and she was ok with that.

Seller is getting a job with the U.S. government to do international social work. Visiting refugee camps, granting special visas etc. Kind of interesting, never would have crossed paths with her except for buying the car. I was a bit frustrated though, she was all concerned to get the car detailed, washed etc. Did not get needed oil change taken care of..... I guess I'm just completely an engineer I want form to FOLLOW function.


Today I lazed around, put my fly baits that I took down thursday so they wouldn't overflow in the rain back out and added a couple more so we hopefully wont get over run with flys after the 1.5 inches of needed rain. I took just an 8 mile ride on Shade down the road. Mabye I'll get my camera in later and post her picture that I did at least take, LOL --Oh my what a funky expression I caught her in.

The ride was kind of frustrating, she felt not 100% even, I cant decide if I'm being a 'hypochondriac' or if she still is a bit short striding on her RF. But I have the vet coming wednesday to give rabies shots so I'll have him check her out then. The first time I've done a rabies vaccination but I was hearing of exposures in neighboring states and seeing a lot of dead skunks on the road. The most excitement of the day was Mia -dumb blonde Great Pyrennese dog stopping right in front of Shade. Shade expects dogs to get out of the way and I forgot Mia freezes and didn't take us to the side before we got right up on top of Mia. Luckily Shade was able to just widen her stride and go over Mia without kicking her. Could have been a real wreck if Mia had gotten knocked down and tripped us, or gotten ribs stepped on and broken.

Here is a picture of the blonde dog standing behind AJ, mom's 16.2 hand TB

Tomorrow I take possession of my non-new car

A 2001 Saturn SL-2 sedan. Not this one actually -no ad pics for the one I'm buying and I've cleverly continued to forget my camera in my pickups glove box whilst borrowing mom's car; but the Saturn I'm buying is also silver, but has some maroon trim. I was having cold feet over plopping down the dollars for a used car, even though I just had it inspected by a mobile service and its basically fine; I had to remind myself I haul hundreds of miles to rides with my 1993 dodge and there are no guarantees of not getting burned even buying a brand new car. So now I'm ok.

I'll probably skip riding again tomorrow morning though. Thankfully I had a quick, but fun fast spin on Shade sunday evening and again tuesday morning.

Thankful for my Bayrab yearling

I don't get good pics of her, but I sure am happy with my Szybki girl

Yesterday morning I checked out a used car -liked it Yay, if it passes inpsection I will not have to force myself to car shop. Then I took the fencing spade and dug goatsheads from around the fenceline in a back paddock, and finally in the evening I caught Grey Moun and Sadie and we took a quip trip down to and along the ditch road. Sadie was full of herself, when I put Grey in the bottom of the ditch to get on, she jumped it to get the green grass and bucked when she landed and she jumped and bucked again when I was situated and took us back on the road to avoid possible broken glass cuts. But oh MY she has such a pretty trot, and she is so confident. She shows the arabian by scooting past stuff she is unsure of, but everytime she got to the end of the lead she just slowed or stopped with little pressure on the lead - I never had to brace. I loff Grey too, he just trucks along ponying the kid --he leaves all discipline to me, but I rather that than getting too gung ho. He's the one I trust for ponying Sadie. I need to get them both out more often.

The light grey horse in this picture is Lady. She is doing well up in Conifer at the Paso FIno Ranch. With luck she has found her permanent owners but they are using the lease to own option still. I think L wants to know if the girls will keep up with horse ownership as school activities get into full swing. At worst if they decide they cant handle horse ownership they will have put a lot of condition and training on Lady so the situation is ideal for me whatever happens.

finally friday --doesn't feel like it though

I'm coming back to Boulder tomorrow to test drive a car from a private seller. I should try to schedule it for today but I'm dragging my feet. Oh I hope I like it and it then passes an inspection. Otherwise I should probably suck it up and check out *shudder* used car dealers. I can't keep borrowing mom's car indefinitely and using the blue beast when she needs it though. Simply have got to get a replacement in the garage within a week or 2 at the most.

well I WAS feeling all proactive and good

But then I had a message when I got to work and I had scheduled my farrier for 1pm today. Why I do not know -- I guess I was sure I'd need to be at 7 weeks so I took the slot even though it works against my schedule. If I had written it on the calendar it would have been ok but I messed up. I had mom call her today, if only I had called her tuesday or yesterday. I feel bad for breaking up her day. The horses will be fine waiting 2 more weeks for their trims I think so I don't feel bad about that.

Oh I was feeling good because today was chiro care day for Shade and Grey Moun. Shade loves chiropractic care! When I had the lady vet/chiro this spring Shade was too nervous of her blocks, but she hadn't found any back issues and didn't need them, just adjusted Shades neck and shoulders which Shade thought felt really good. Even though its a different chiro, she was totally relaxed and good for him. She didn't actually chew and lick this time but she gave her floppy happy lips when he adjusted her neck and was fine with him using his little ladder to adjust her back. Grey was pretty good for him too, he didn't seem to love it, but he sure didn't dislike it.

Now I have to get cracking on car shopping. The one car I think I might really want, she wants to get detailed and that wont be done before sunday. I'll have to try to convince her to let me drive it saturday morning before she does the detailing, so I can hit some dealerships if I don't like it.

hmm, fall allergies?

I don't recall having any that kick up in the fall but no other cold symptoms than stuffiness and some sleepiness. I should be grateful I only get stuffy with allergies I guess.

yuck, feels like I'm getting a head cold

No sore throat yet, but I have the light headed and stuffy feeling big time. I hate when my ears feel like they've got goop in them.

I'm still not sure what to do for a replacement car. I need to try to do some research on repair costs. I feel like a corolla would be good because the model is in its 4th decade so parts should be easy to get, but there are other factors for repair costs that I have no clue about. I need to getRdone sooner rather than later though.

I mostly enjoyed my weekend. It was really fun visiting with Rosalie at the ride. I felt fairly extraneous a lot of the time though so next year I must come as an entrant or not at all. I think Rosalie wants to enter next year too so maybe we can push each other to condition and get there.

I punted on car-shopping on the holiday since I had no ride. I guess I should just start shopping and if I find a car I like and it passes inspection, see if I can't finagle them to follow me home in it. But yesterday I was feeling stuffy and light headed too + was tired so I mostly vegged out, watching closer re-runs that I missed the original episodes of.

I did pull some goatsheads in the morning and then fired up the tractor and worked up a bunch in the evening + scooped a bit on the pens. Now I should go out tomorrow morning and bag some of the loose stuff before the burrs all fall off. I so hate them. Also hate mom's prima dona attitude. When she isn't sick she will work like a rented mule planting crap that will need hours of continued care but she sure doesn't like to get after weeds, or do much permanent stuff like painting or fixing fences. LOL, I spend time on horse crap that has no permanent results but I just can't get into it with planting vegetation.

thursday already -time flies

I have to round up a tent etc for car camping this weekend. I have already decided I'll get a hotel if its cold though. I don't do trying to get to sleep when I'm chilled. Still be cheaper than the diesel costs if I was taking horse and trailer with the pickup. But if its mild I'll camp; it'll be fun to visit all evening and so on and I wont have any horse care duties to worry about. So there is a slight benefit to Shade not being good to go. My chiropractor called me last night and we are scheduled for next week; september 4. I'm so glad I have an appointment. I rode Shade yesterday and we had fun but I did think she felt uneven. Less so after she 'raced' the horses in the pasture next to the road we were riding up the hill. I stretched her front legs and didn't feel any resistance; did not even pull saddle first, I don't really trust my eyes to have caught any differences in shoulder blades anyway. I should call my vet today and ask him to get rabies vaccines for me. We seem to have a lot of skunks around and it makes me a bit edgy -although the dogs are good to keep everything off the place; but still I also haul the horses quite a bit.

Trial by fire for towing the new trailer

Not literally thank goodness. But I had hesitated to pull the trailer with the folks' p/u, mini 5th wheel hitch and adaptor because dad found that the rock in the 5th wheel + the gooseneck/ball hitch motion made it tough. So since my p/u was to be ready to go on friday we never tried to get the 5th wheel blocked up where it couldn't move. So I got my p/u. Hitched up and made sure there was clearance to turn (there is NOT clearance to leave a tail gate down and hitch up so I don't know that I'll bother putting my tail gate on. Its been off ever since I bought my camper but we still have it.

So add in my slow packing and I hit some early rush hour slowing on 225 through Aurora and then Parker road with all the traffic lights really gave the blue beast an acid test for pulling the white albatross. It was able to pull through that with no tranny overheating or any other issues. Shade does not like the new trailer but she isn't being stupid about it and I think she'll adjust. I liked my weekend package, even with the limitations of not having everything ready to use yet.

=========================

The ride was a nail biter. Shade was short striding on the RF at the friday check. When the vet told me my response was "I'm not sure I should even start then as this is not something that has ever been seen before" The vet and head vet told me it was quite subtle and Dr D volunteered to look at her again saturday morning before we started. I took them up on that (tacked and warmed her just a bit and had them look just minutes before ride start. Still there but less than friday night. So I went ahead and started, figured its no big deal to me if we get pulled mid ride; Grey gave me lots of practice with that.

I thought I maybe felt something just a couple of times during the ride, but always only when Shade was ahead of the group and wondering where they were, not wanting to leave them -in the first and 3rd of 4 loops. I never did get ducks aligned to wait till end of a hold for the check to make extra sure the vets would see everything that might be there; but she always had 10 minutes to come off of trail adrenalin and I knew they had good eyes. Just a few minutes after our 3rd loop vet check they announced that they were putting the ride on hold due to tornado warnings and lots of lightning. Very rare on an endurance ride that all riders happened to be in the vet hold and they could make such a call. I took Shade to the barn area, they had announced there were 100 open stalls and we could use them and I figured that was better than a ride camp with all manner of
folding carts etc to blow around if a tornado or strong winds came through.

Shade hated the stalls. They were designed so strange horses wouldn't fight, with solid side walls and she couldn't see any other horses. But she wasn't crazy, just stood there feeling miserable. Well we didn't get any tornado, not even strong wind and they announced they were resuming the dressage show so I saddled Shade back up and went up to the ride area. I was the only 50 miler who had headed to the barns. They were looking for me (I took a weird route I guess) so they could send us on the final loop.

I quick bridled and put on my helmet and gloves and we all rode out together. Shade loved it. She led the whole pack much of the way, with the front runner taking the lead at times when Shade was content to just mosey a bit. (I'm not sure front runner really understood that the differences in everyones pulse time into that vet check was going to be accounted for at the end of the ride, so she had over 20 minutes on me or if she was competing with the 2nd place horse and rider still) I knew it, I was just letting Shade have fun, she loves to be the lead mare (should have been a mustang.) We cantered across the finish --not racing because Shade didn't care who was in front, just wanted to stay with the other mare at that point and I knew the whole group was so close that I was last since I had been 5 minutes behind in pulsing down at the vet check.

I went ahead and stood for BC since there were less than 10 of us and we were all so close in time, and others had been complaining about horses being a bit off too. Shade's 10 minute CRI was ok but her final BC was not great (nothing even close to not fit to finish for getting the ride completion but the #'s would not have been great. So maybe it was some subconscious will on my part to forget to report my weight to the vets scribe so they could compute our score.

I was going "huh" when there were only 3 BC presenters at the awards thing and I was not one of them; only remembered my memory lapse as I was walking back to the trailers. Overall I am really happy with my ride. Shade shows the steel under that magnolia exterior once again. Unfortunately the front runner was pulled. I guess she kind of had race brain. I didn't see much gait problem on the trail but they had told her the horse was marginal at that 3rd VC, and she stood for BC (one does not have to do this) and the horse was over the margin at the final check. I have no idea if the mare would have trotted out good enough if she had just completed right at the end of the ride but I bet she wishes she would have at least tried to do that.

============================

I had told the RM I would volunteer sunday morning if I didn't have to go to Conifer to fetch Lady right away. Well Lady may well be staying up there for a year so I had time. I enjoyed ride volunteering. Front runner was sponsoring someone else's daughter on the LD. She was still wanting to top ten but she was really polite to the vols and vets and not pushing. I was never in eye or earshot on saturday so I don't know what transpired but she and the 2nd place rider had kept getting mixed up on the course. I over heard someone on sunday say she was being real polite so sounded like she wasn't so polite saturday.

I don't know -I have ridden the ride before so even though 2 loops were different I had a feel for the maps and how the loops started out but still I think the course was marked fine for just riding, not racing, and an experienced racer, not spoiled by trail bosses who mark to try to outfox the person who always manages to get lost or having been with an experienced rider in front would have been fine. I did a mix of pulsing and vet scribing. I put Shade in a now open pen during the ride so I wouldn't have to worry about her getting a leg over her lead at the trailer or anything since we were all out to an away first check on sunday.

When all the LD riders had vetted and things were pretty much in hand, plenty of vols for the 3 50's still on course I decided to break away and get home. When I had the trailer packed up and went to grab Shade she had managed to give herself a scrape/cut on her chest. She must have hit the t-post holding the panel. It was tall and she didn't rear and impale herself on the top, but the tabs to hold wire clips were facing into the pen, and that is the only thing I think could have stuck out enough to catch on at all. I asked the ride vet if I could get one more bit of free medical advice -just wanted to know if she agreed it was no biggie, just put some stuff to keep flies out on it -- she cleaned it up for me and confirmed its superficial and its not right at the corner of her chest where it would keep getting pulled so it should heal quickly. Great blood supply, I'm sure glad Shade didn't find a way to scrape a leg.

Shade loaded ok. S(from HJ) helped us. I had tied her, so she wouldn't try turn around and maybe scrape herself and she got the lead over her nose and pretty well was in a bind, so I had to just unsnap her and let her turn around, - since I had a door holder this was okay so she got to ride home turned around. Probably better for braking for those lights on Parker road. I don't accelerate too quickly with the albatross so there is not much stress on a horse taking off.

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Today I found out the Sep 13-14 ride just west of Fort Carson is canceled. They had a fire there. I think it was some time ago, someone at this weekend's ride used the words "the fire this SPRING burned right there at the arena where the basecamp always is" So I'm a bit pizzed that the recreation area manager didn't put out any kind of alert that the ride might not be able to happen, but seemingly just waited till the last minute. And since Shade was short striding this weekend I won't take her to the Rushcreek ride in Neb. this weekend. But I did see on the ride calendar where a 3 day ride has been added in sw NM in mid Nov. Its a longer drive than Moab, and probably not quite as scenic, but the timing will be better for work so I guess I'm going to get Shade checked out by a chiro, and hopefully try to condition up and plan to try to do that ride in NM.

So I don't guess my trailer is bad luck/karma. Actually, at this point I think its been a victim of the previous owner. Friday I thought I might fill the horse water tank, dad had filled the people tank. Dad had told me that the horses tank hose doesn't have an end valve so I grabbed the valve from my b/p trailer. Well when I went to put on my hose valve I found that the hose end was female, not male like expected. Hmm, look under the tank and WTF, the end with the valve switch has been JAMMED up under the tray tank, I couldn't get it free, I think I have to get cutters and cut some on the tray tank to have any hope of not completely tearing up the hose connection on the tank to get it straightened out. But HooBoy, the poor horses the original owner was 'training' --using that amount of brute force on a hose, instead of reasoning things out, trying the other end --- well I'm glad the roping horse trainer that bought the estate and sold me the trailer got all those horses and they got a chance. I know some folks think being a roping horse is a hard life, and I don't even know what discipline the original trailer was in. paint horse trainer tells *me* nuthin; but I think M (roper) is a horseman, and at least taught them their jobs. My guess is the original trailer owner was just a forcer.